Studio Georgeville
Along with the special members exhibit, Studio Georgeville is organizing a concert by the local swing band The Honeysuckle Sisters. They will perform on Friday, August 3, at 7 p.m. in the Murray Memorial Centre.
Once the Ten Years and Counting! exhibit is over, the gallery will be keeping their momentum going with yet another art show, “The Magic of Glass”, which will open on August 7, with an official vernissage on August 11. The show, which will run until September 9, will be done in collaboration with Valérie Paquin of Espace Verre in Montreal, a studio that specializes in glass blowing.
The success of Studio Georgeville, according to Abbott, who is herself a local photographer, filmmaker and author, is attributed to both the team running it and the community that has provided unwavering support.
“Ten years, that’s a long time! Especially for an art studio. I think it’s a testament to the team spirit. Co-ops often fall apart, but ours is very consensual. We always manage to find common ground.”
Studio Georgeville, besides being an art co-op, offers a tremendous variety of other experiences including art exhibitions, book launches, poetry readings, film screenings, life-drawing classes, a knitting circle, a farmer's market, and a winter Saturday morning café. The studio also holds a wide variety of workshops, presentations, and concerts.
“I don’t think there are very many places around here where you can find a life-drawing class with a model, but we have them at Studio Georgeville,” commented Abbott.
“We’ve had many great workshops over the years. We’ve had a free essential oil making workshop, papier maché, mobile making. We had a kite making
one for kids. It was wonderful seeing them engrossed in something other than an ipad,” she laughed. “This year we had a First Nations celebration, and Cree artist Deborah Ratt gave a beading, jewellery making workshop over Canada Day weekend. People were really engrossed. It was excellent, 20 people attended that one.”
“What’s great is that the studio also offers entrepreneurial help for artists. We teach them how to get themselves out there. Once we had a workshop for artists that taught them how to use social media to expand their outreach, how to take nice photos of their work, that sort of thing,” she added.
Abbott put emphasis on the community-oriented nature of the studio, crediting it for much of their success.
“I think that another thing that has helped us throughout the years is the fact that we truly believe and live our mandate: ‘art and community’. It’s what we’re all about. We’d be nothing without the tremendous support we receive from the community.”
Abbot described how the community pulled through for Studio Georgeville from the very beginning.
“When it all started thanks to Mary and Elin, we got together very quickly in the winter of 2008. By June we were open and having our first exhibitions! There was so much enthusiasm from the town, the response was so great on that opening day. It’s thanks to them that we moved forward so quickly.”
“When you double as a cultural center, I think you gain something unique,” said Abbot. “I still remember when we first opened. It was so amazing, the sheer number of people who showed up. And since then it’s just continued. We’re very thankful.”